


Acolyte's Dream

by PhantomFox



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Aftermath of Possession, Canon-Typical Violence, Drabble, One Shot, technically possession, the Emperor is a Bastard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:01:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26446759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomFox/pseuds/PhantomFox
Summary: In her bunk on the emperor's fortress, an acolyte dreams.She won't remember much upon waking--the overseers make sure she's worked hard enough that her mind refuses to hang onto the sticky gossamer threads for long, stuffed to the brim with lessons that echo oddly in her head, worn to the bone by endless bouts against red-robed guards and huge, deadly droids--but still, despite the emperor's desires, she dreams of places that don't resonate with screams and pain.
Kudos: 4





	Acolyte's Dream

**Author's Note:**

> just finished chapter 2 of the knight storyline for the first time (not the last!), and boy howdy, did that hit me hard. delicious mind breaking.

In her bunk on the emperor's fortress, an acolyte  ~~_ (the hero of Tython) _ ~~ dreams.

She won't remember much upon waking--the overseers make sure she's worked hard enough that her mind refuses to hang onto the sticky gossamer threads for long, stuffed to the brim with lessons that echo oddly in her head, worn to the bone by endless bouts against red-robed guards and huge, deadly droids--but still, despite the emperor's desires, she dreams of places that don't resonate with screams and pain. 

She dreams of a ship, and of others sharing that warm, close space. She dreams of green places, and of burning sands; of craggy, jagged mountains against pale blue skies, and of air so cold it feels like blades when she breathes.

The overseers frown when she mentions the dreams, and she learns to keep quiet, to stay on her knees as the lord emperor places hands on her, his power washing over and through her, claiming her. She learns not to speak of the droid that is broken by its master's long-ago death, of the girl with the scarred face that she sometimes sees on the monitors; the first  _ (last) _ time she brought up the girl, the lord emperor had been furious. She had spent days in the kolto baths after that mistake, visited only by medical droids and Lord Scourge, his red eyes burning through the blue-tinted transparisteel.

When she meditates, her mind is filled with rage and fear, and a sense of something wrong, something horribly, sickeningly wrong, and yet, she doesn't understand.

_ Peace is a lie, there is only passion. _

She repeats the words, over and over, ignoring the oddly pale shadow that slowly gains definition in the corners of rooms. She knows that the overseers wouldn't like her speaking of the shadow any more than her dreams, and so she keeps quiet, not wanting to face their wrath.

_ Through passion, I gain strength. _

Some of the Sith  _ (powerful, strong, superior) _ smirk when they see her, sneer at her even as they force her against a wall or a door, their grips brutal and uncaring of the bruises they leave, the damage they cause. If Lord Scourge catches them, the abuse eases, giving her time to heal; more often than not, the Sith taking advantage of her are her masters, her overseers, and the threat of punishment, of her lord emperor's anger, keeps her even quieter.

_ Through strength, I gain power. _

When she fights, she is given two lightsabers, the beams a brilliant sapphire blue; the design is a striking contrast to the hilts carried by the overseers, light where theirs are dark  ~~_ (in the spaces between her lessons, the quiet moments just before sleep and just after waking, she wonders at the difference; if she truly was Sith, then why are her weapons constructed in a style so different from theirs?) _ ~~ ~~.~~ As soon as she is done, the lightsabers are taken away, locked somewhere she can't reach. 

_ Through power, I gain victory. _

They had let her keep them exactly once; the overseer that came to wake her the next morning still bore scars, some bizarre instinct driving her to attack him; eventually, he was able to overpower her, slamming her repeatedly into the floor until darkness took her. The green-skinned alien  ~~_ (a nautolan?) _ ~~ they had her fight days later fared no better, a number of its strange head tentacles left twitching on bloodied plating, its high pitched shrieks ringing in her ears.

_ Through victory, my chains are broken. _

Each time the mantra  ~~_ (it's a code, and it's supposed to be the only one she follows) _ ~~ circles around to the last lines, she's puzzled. What chains? She is not bound, she knows there is a ship  ~~_ (is it the same ship from the dreams? She doesn't know.) _ ~~ somewhere in the fortress that she could go to at any time, but the idea of leaving  ~~_ (escaping) _ ~~ fills her with a deep terror. 

This terror confuses her as well. 

She is Sith  ~~_ (isn't she?) _ ~~ She is strong, and uses her passions to call on the power that flows beneath her skin, even as something inside her twists at how wrong it feels. Sith should not be afraid, should not fear anything but their emperor, should be in control of this disordered galaxy, and yet….

In the corner of the room, watching her with sad, determined eyes, is the pale shadow. 

In a few moments, one of the overseers will arrive, to take her to yet another lesson.

Still on her knees, the  ~~_ (hero of Tython) _ ~~ acolyte dreams while she should be meditating on the code, and she watches the pale shadow come even closer, listens to the near-silent voice as it whispers to her.

The shadow is kneeling next to her now, and a name drifts to the front of her mind, finally cutting through the webs the emperor wrapped around her.

"Master Orgus?"

The pale shadow smiles at last, some of the tension leaving its wrinkled face.

_ "My padawan." _

**_The force shall free me._ **

_ ~fin _


End file.
